Getting better and quicker translation at lower cost!

31 Free Tips from Translia

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You might be looking for a translation company for your first translation project. You might be unsatisfied with your current translation provider and want to change it. For either reason, you searched for translation companies and got more than 16,000,000 results...

We feel lucky as you chose this page from millions of web pages. We appreciate the click you paid us. In return we want to make you a happy translation customer by revealing the pitfalls of translation services, sharing the tips on how to save while getting better and quicker translation.

Of course all those are FREE. Further more, to help more people choose a right translation company, we encourage you to cite or republish this article on your website or blog.

1. Say T.E.P.

... then you can expect better prices and services from the translation companies. It's amazingly simple. TEP or T/E/P here means translating, editing, and proofreading. It's a jargon used by translation professionals. When you say TEP, they know you're an experienced client who understands how quality translation is made. They certainly value you and want to offer you the best prices and services!

If you want to be as experienced as it sounds, know a little more about why TEP is important to translation quality: Translation is a very complex task because language is one of the most complex things in the universe. No translator can deliver good enough translation with a single round of work. To reach a high level of quality, translators have to make great effort to eliminate errors, improve accuracy and fluency through editing and proofreading. This is true to the translators of all levels, even the highly skilled ones.

2. Apple to apple comparison

It is widely recognized TEP is the best translation practice. Unfortunately, not all translation service providers follow the best practice. Many translation companies offer you "T-only" translation services, without editing and proofreading. Usually, E (editing) and P (proofreading) may take same amount of time as T (translating), or even more. That's why some companies will add editing at your request but will charge you additional fee. So it's important to ask what their offers include before you compare their translation rates. Only an apple to apple comparison is meaningful, right?

The above also partially answered your question why translation quotes vary greatly - because they are of totally different service level although they are all called “translation service”. As the translation quotes are mentioned, we would like to give you some easy ways to screen out the poor translation companies.

3. Refuse it if they quote by page

As you use word processor day to day, you know what a page means. However page is NOT the right unit to measure the size of translation job. Ctrl A to select all text in your word processor and change the font size to 48, your two page document would become 20 pages immediately! The correct measurement is by word. It reflects the job size in a much more accurate manner. To know the word count of your document, just choose Tools - Word count from the main menu of your word processor.

4. Always quote by source word count

Two more translation jargons that will make you even more professional: Source, what you want to translate from; Target, what you want to translate into. Source document means the document you want to translate. Target language, the language you want to translate into. You should always use the source word count for pricing. The reason is simple, you cannot get the target word count until the translation is finished!

So why those translation companies want to quote by target word count? Certain language requires much more words than English for conveying the same information. For example, the word count of Chinese translation would be 70% more than its English original!

5. You can never save with cheap translation!

You can always find lower and lower prices if you keep searching on the Internet. You can get the translation done at lower cost but you will never actually save with cheap translation. The reason is simple. Qualified professional translators seldom, if ever, take jobs at a very low price. If someone offers you very low prices, you can imagine who will actually do the translation. Poor translators deliver poor translation. And in the end you have to pay more to improve the translation, not to mention the potential business opportunities you might lose.

You will regret if you choose the translation companies who quote the lowest.

6. How cheap is too cheap?

There are no standard translation rates. You need to learn to tell what are reasonable and what are not. In addition to comparing quotes from multiple translation companies, you can make an estimation based on the living cost level of translators. Like any other professional service, the fees are actually based on the hourly rate. A normal translator may translate about 2,000 words including T/E/P for western languages, less for Asian languages. It varies with quality requirements and the nature of content. However 2,000 is a good number to estimate the translation rates: Assume the typical hourly rate for the target region is $20 per hour, the word rate would be (20 x 8 / 2000) x 150% = $0.12 per words. Generally you should be alert if they quote less than $0.1/word for professional translation services.

7. Why is translation expensive?

Translators are expensive...
Translation is labor intensive and time consuming. To deliver high quality translation, it requires skills and expertise that only professional translators possess. Professional translators, like doctors and lawyers, need many years of learning and practice to get qualified. That's why they are expensive.

... and company expenses are high.
Translation gets even more expensive because you usually buy it from a translation company. The tasks like processing orders, handling files and contacting translators are time consuming so they result in remarkable expenses. The company will add a margin on the top of translator fee to cover the expenses, which can be 50% or even more of what you pay them.

8. Are expensive translation companies better?

Absolutely not. For example, some translation companies (or companies) who aim to serving large enterprises hire a large team of project manager, account manager, and sales people so their translation rates are at the higher end. If you use their services, they might pay yor money to the sales people more than the translators. You can image their quality would not be good. Unless the name of your company is Microsoft or IBM, you can safely pass those who quote far above the average.

9. So, what makes the good or bad translation?

Process and translator. The process is important because, as mentioned above, translators intend to introduce errors because of their human nature. Only proper translation process can ensure the consistent quality. As for translators, they do the job actually, right? The qualification, experience and background of translators, and even their mood when they work on the job, largely decide the translation quality. However we do NOT recommend you to choose translation company by translator qualifications for it's not easy to qualify a translator in reality. There are no reliable, effective, and efficient ways to identify a good translator indeed. You'd better to leave that job to the translation companies. Otherwise why do you hire a translation company? Also you will be convinced as we reveal the below big SECRET...

10. Translation companies share translators!

You may want to know 99% of translators are freelance translators. This means they are NOT dedicated to any single translation company. Instead they work for multiple, a dozen, many translation companies. There are a small number of in-house full-time translators in some huge enterprises, but they are too expensive for the rest. If a translation company says they have better (freelance) translators than any other companies, don't believe them!

So what makes the difference on earth?

Process, again. Different translation companies deliver different quality with same translators because their processes are different. If you want superior quality for your translation project, we'd like to introduce a translation process that can ensure the highest quality standard, certainly a bit more expensive.

11. Choose Alternating TEP for important translation

You know T/E/P means three processes of translation: translating, editing, and proofreading. So what does Alternating TEP mean? It means any two continuous processes are taken by different translators. For example, if translator A performs a translating task, then the following editing task must be taken by a different translator, B.

Why? We tend to ignore mistakes we make ourselves. This is true for everyone including professional translators. The performance may continue to get worse if we ask the same translator to improve his/her own translation again and again. It’s better to alternate translators to improve the work. This achieves much higher efficiency and quality.

12. Ask for the evidence

Simply pass those who cannot give you a clear description on their process - they might be ones who don't know how to make good translation at all! For the remained, you should go a further step by asking if they can provide any evidence for the implementation of described processes. You want to ensure they walk as they talk, right?

Don't mind the format of evidence. As only those leading players can get their processes clearly defined and tracked, you might need to be flexible with this because most translation companies don't have a formalized process in place at all. The most important is you can be sure they do what they promise. For example, if they promise alternating TEP, ask "How can I get to know the translation is edited by a different translator?"

13. How do big companies choose translation companies?

They might have a vendor manager who is responsible for choosing translation companies, or translation vendors as they prefer. They might require the candidate to fill the lengthy forms but the key point is the same - resources and process! How do we know that? We provided translation services to enterprises like Microsoft or Dell for many years!

Well, now you're almost a translation expert. Next we would like to give you more tips on how to save on translation without sacrificing quality.

14. Is the location important?

Some translation companies mention it as a strength that they are USA or UK based. It's true domestic companies give your more confidence, and convenience as you're in the same time zone. However if you mean translation quality, keep in mind they will hire freelance translators to do the job. So the more important is where their translators are based. As one of the best practices, it's better to use the local translators. For example, we'd better to use a Japan based Japanese translator for English to Japanese translation. There might be good Japanese translators in USA but for sake of safety, we'd better to use the ones in Japan.

15. Are bigger companies better?

You might have an impression that large companies do better jobs than the smaller ones. This is not always true. Also the number of languages they work with might give you a wrong impression about their size. In fact a company that supports 100 languages doesn't have to be larger or better than the ones supporting 10 languages. The size of translation companies, if you mean the number of full-time employees, mainly depends on their business model. Their translation processes are more important indeed.

16. Do translation companies offer money back guarantee?

Not many translation companies offer money back guarantee for translation quality because defining the translation quality is difficult, not to mention measuring it. Again, that's why we emphasize the process. There are a few, not many, translation companies offer quality guarantee. If you're lucky enough to meet any of them, be sure to read their terms carefully - not all money back guarantee gives you strong protection.

17. What if you don't understand the target language?

It doesn't matter. Even the translation company's sales person might not understand it. You can still get good translation if you follow our tips to choose a right translation company.

18. Why is translation so slow?

If you ever use a traditional translation company, you know how slow the translation is. You place an order and can't get the translation until a few days or even weeks later, depending on the content, nature and volume. Why can't we get translation quickly?

Translation is just slow. Translation work is detail oriented and labor intensive. The faster a translator works the more mistakes s/he makes. It's a rule true for all translators, regardless of their knowledge, skills and capabilities. To ensure an acceptable quality level, translators have to control the speed. The daily max words for a translator to put out usually range from 1,000 to 2,500 words, depending on the languages, nature of source and quality requirements.

Collaboration is difficult. For translation projects of millions of words, assigning multiple translators to work on the different parts of source at the same time may speed up. However doing so brings inconsistency and requires additional editing. Also, a translator cannot start editing a section until all of its source text has been translated. For small jobs it is even more difficult to assign multiple translators and get translating, editing, and proofreading tasks done by different people in an efficient manner. It requires much more time in planning, communicating and coordinating who will do what and when. Collaborative translation for a turnaround shorter than 3 days is virtually impossible without an advanced translation technology.

The business process is inefficient. Last but not the least - Translation companies have to allocate a large amount of time for non-productive business process such as contacting the translators, negotiating for delivery terms, processing files, orders, invoices, and payment. If you leave three days for the translation company, the time left for translators might be as less as one day.

Disappointing, right? So here is the next tip.

19. Let translation companies propose the time

Even you have a clear schedule for your translation project, it's better to let translation companies to propose a time frame based on their capacity and availability. Doing so you can prevent some companies propose unreasonably short turnaround to match your schedule. Request them to include when they can start translation and when they can deliver. Some companies might accept your order but cannot start it until the day before deadline!

20. Don't require shorter turnaround

If the deadlines they propose don't match your schedule, try other translation companies. Translation service market is highly competitive. To seize more clients the translation companies always give the best time they can meet. Don't try to press the companies to speed up to fit your schedule. Some companies might compromise but that might result in a calamity later. If all proposed turnarounds don't match your expectation, your schedule might be unrealistic. Revise it, for the sake of quality!

21. Don't beg if they're busy

There might be time when you contact a translation company and they say their translators are busy and cannot start your job right away. Even they refuse you, you should appreciate their integrity and frankness. We recommend you contact them again when you have a job to do next time. However never beg them to help you by inserting your job to the queue - that would break their process and overload the translators, either of which would result in very poor translation.

22. And avoid being baited

Some bad translation companies might accept your order even they know the deadline you set is not realistic. When the deadline is approaching or has passed, they may beg you to extend it. You have to extend it because you have made the payment or not much time is left. To prevent this you can ask if they offer money back guarantee for timely delivery. Some translation companies do offer 100% money back.

23. Are there any quick translation service?

Yes, there are same day translation, overnight translation, or even one hour translation. However most will charge you a rush fee. Also keep in mind there is always a trade-off between quality and time. If you do want quick translation, choose from those online translation service providers, who can response quicker than the traditional translation companies.

24. Reserve more time for translation

Very tight schedules make your translation project risky. You are more likely to underestimate the time needed for translation. Keep in mind translation is time consuming and we have no way to shorten the turnaround further where the limit of labor is reached. If you are not sure how much time to reserve for your projects, you can use our instant quote feature (registration required) or consult us. Both are free, without obligation.

25. Get your "translation window" under control

You cannot start translation before your source texts are frozen. At the same time you must get the translation ready before your products or websites are released. The interval between the two points is "translation window". To get the translation window under your control, you need to participate in scheduling and tracking both content authoring and content release. You will find the source texts are always updating but the time-to-market cannot be postponed. If you take actions to prevent delay of freezing the source, the translation time can be guaranteed and the quality will be assured.

26. Be aware of minimum fee

Most translation companies apply a minimum charge. When the job size is small, they might give you higher rate per word or simply charge you a flat minimum fee, say $50. So be sure to ask what their minimum charge are if you want to get a small job done. The good news is there are some translation companies, again, mainly online service providers don't charge minimum fee. You can even get a single word or sentence translated at a reasonable rate!

27. Not all translation websites offer online services

However be aware not all translation companies having a website are online translation service provider. Most of them just use the website for lead generation, which means expecting you to call or email them for the service. Even those who have an online price table would not be an online service if they cannot process order and deliver translation online. In fact, only a small number of translation companies offer online translation services in a real meaning.

28. Use translation memory and save

If you need to update your source text regularly, ask if the translation companies can use a translation memory tool to work on your job and include the TM as deliverable. Here TM means translation memories instead of trade mark. Your contents may include repeating sentences. With translation memory tools, translators can translate such sentences once and reuse the translation. That brings improved productivity and thus reduced cost. You may ask for a discount for reused translation.

29. You can enjoy TM benefits for free

...unless you need to do complex content management tasks. Also a few but not many online translation service providers have integrated TM tools with their service portal. Some even allow their clients to use the TM tools for free! So, just ask if they offer TM services.

30. Pass if they say localization or globalization

Those companies might position themselves as a localization company, which offers add-on services on top of translation. You might need localization sometimes but if now you only want to get some web pages or documents translated, their service might be too much to you.

31. Buy translation online and save!

Yes! Online business usually achieves higher efficiency and thus can offer cheaper prices. You might have noticed we mentioned online translation service providers more than once. Yes, some of them are rising leaders among all translation providers because they can provide better and quicker translation services at lower cost.

More questions about translation companies?

Feel free to write us. We're happy to answer any question about translation for free.

Again, we encourage you to cite or republish this article on your website or blog. Doing so you help people choose a right translation company for their translation projects! Please include the below back link:

About Translia

We are the leader in online translation. We develop state of the art translation technology, build the world's largest professional translator network, and satisfy clients all over the world for any language, on any subject, at any time.

If you like our tips on choosing right translation company, we recommend you to check out how we excel all other translation companies on translation rates, quality and time at the same time!